Memorial honors memory of nurse

CARROLLTON — Friends, family, and coworkers of the late Anna Newton came together at Thomas H. Boyd Memorial Hospital for the dedication of a tree, bench and stone in memory of the longtime employee.

Newton was a registered nurse for 22 years with the inpatient department at the hospital. Co-workers trying to decide what they wanted to do in her memory thought of how she loved a lilac bush that used to be outside the hospital entrance.

They were able to purchase a sitting bench and memorial stone to go with a lilac bush. At the dedication ceremony, her husband, Ben, spoke of his begging her to move to another state where they could pursue alternative forms of treatment because none of the traditional forms of treatment for her cancer were working. He said she wouldn’t do it because she valued her family, friends and her work too highly to “abandon” them in search of something “selfish.”

Judy Brannan, director of nursing at Thomas H Boyd Memorial Hospital, said “no one ever left without a smile on their face when Anna was here.”